Operation: Rebirth Chapter Three: Triumph of the Will

Captain America has been revived by Sharon Carter and Red Skull for an important mission. A Hitler worshiping group called the Kubekult has stolen an imperfect Cosmic Cube containing the mind of Adolf Hitler himself and have been attempting to jump start it to alter reality into his insane vision for the world. Tracking down the cult to an American energy research facility, they failed to stop them from altering the immediate reality around them. Before they can undo the damage, Sharon Carter has absconded with the Cube, leaving Captain America and the Red Skull alone to fight an army of Neo-Nazi soldiers.[1]

The pair fight through enemy soldiers and when the Red Skull is cornered from all sides, Captain America saves his life. Steve then tells his mortal enemy that this makes them even after the Skull saved his own life earlier. They eventually catch up with Sharon Carter who was trying to get away long enough to use the Cosmic Cube to restore everything to normal. However, she decides that she shouldn’t be the one to set things right, that is a task for Captain America. She then hands him the Cube and for a brief moment Cap subconsciously uses the power of the cube to briefly revert Sharon back into the woman he used to know. Realizing how dangerous the device is he decides that nobody has the right to use it. Unfortunately, the ruined catwalk he is trying to hold onto shakes causing the Cube to fall out of his hands.

When the Red Skull tries to recover it, Captain America leaps down and knocks him away. Picking up the Cosmic Cube, Cap crushes it in his hands seemingly destroying the device. Suddenly, Bucky appears out of nowhere and congratulates Steve on his victory. He thanks his old partner telling him that the future is theirs. As it turns out, Captain America didn’t destroy the Cosmic Cube after all, he is now trapped inside it. Seeing Captain America trapped inside the Red Skull is pleased.

Recurring Characters

Captain America, Red Skull, Sharon Carter, Kubekult

Continuity Notes

1. There is a lot going on off the top, so let’s break it down:

   • Captain America’s Super-Soldier Serum was breaking down in Captain America #425. It brought him near death until his was cured last issue.

   • This was done thanks to a full blood transfusion and bone marrow transplant from the Red Skull. At the time of this story, the Skull’s body was cloned from Steve Rogers’ DNA after the Skull’s original body died of old age. See Captain America #300 and 350.

   • Up until last issue, Steve believed that Sharon Carter had died after being brainwashed by the Neo-Nazi group National Front in Captain America #237. We’ll learn later this issue that she faked her death to go on deep cover only to be cut loose by SHIELD for some unknown reason. Fury/Agent 13 #2 reveals that Sharon was abandoned because Fury believed she was killed on her mission as it only had a 17% survival rate.

   • In the Marvel Universe, Adolf Hitler was immolated by the Human Torch, as seen in Young Men #24. However, Hitler cheated death thanks to Arnim Zola a geneticist who devised a means of downloading Hitler’s mind into a cloned body upon his death, as explained in Super-Villain Team-Up #17. Hitler would pop-up in the present day as the Hate-Monger for the first time in Fantastic Four #21. The Skull later trapped thew Hate-Monger’s mind in an impure Cosmic Cube in Super-Villain Team-Up #17. The Cube was last seen in his possession in Captain America #370.

Topical References

• Here it is stated that World War II ended over 50 years prior to this story. This assessment of time should be considered topical. The Modern Age of the Marvel Universe operates on a Sliding Timescale, which bumps the “present day” forward in time. As such the gulf of time between the end of World War II and the start of the Modern Age grows larger with the passage of time. Click here for the math on that.